Where does Final Fantasy XII rank among the previous games in the series? (Spoilers)

[Pal0012]

I for one believe that FFXII is a very good game, but I didn't feel like it was great like some Final Fantasies of the past. I feel like this is probably my 5th favorite Final Fantasy game, behind 6,7,8, and 10. It's a good game, but when I beat it I didn't feel the satisfaction or need to play it again and explore everything. After beating X the first time without the strategy guide, I looked at one and played again, as there was a lot of fun stuff to do still. That was not the case at all with this game, as I just kind of accepted beating the game and moved on. The strength of this game was probably the overall story, characters, and how well the new battle system worked. The weaknesses I would say is the lack of stuff worthwhile doing, as a lot of the bonus stuff just seems tedious to me, and not very fun. I also thought the quickenings were too long and too influential on the battle, as until the later part of the game, I relied on them too heavily to win most boss fights. I also thought they kind of made it kind of less important to use an esper, and therefore I did not summon very often due to quickenings usually being way more useful than summoning, (which should be something the game centers around more). The ending kind of sucked too, I was left feeling like it was one of the crappiest endings in the Final Fantasy series. The game just left me a little empty, and I was just wondering how others rank this in terms of the overall Final Fantasy series.

[Dynast-Kid]

FFXII > All the other FFs I've played

But i'm a hopeless FFXII fanboy, so my biased opinions can't be taken too seriously.

[vorpal blade]

I liked it. It ranks below VII, VI, IX, and VI, possibly around #6 or #7.

[edczxcvbnm]

XII > Everything > > VI

[Darth Anarcus]

I just beat it a few minutes ago.

Here is my ranking system of the ones I have finished:
1. Final Fantasy VIII
2. Final Fantasy VII
3. Final Fantasy (The Origins remake of the first game for PSX.)
4. Final Fantasy XII
5. Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
6. Final Fantasy X
7. Final Fantasy IX
8. Final Fantasy X-2

The gameplay, mechanics and battle system were mint, however this game really suffered in the areas of plot, characters and abundance of sidequests. The plot was mostly ininterresting and hard to follow, the characters were very flat, unchanging and boring (especially the main character: Vaan, whom I found to be extremely boring, underdeveloped, and easily the single worse lead character in the series thus far), and the game just had too many sidequests. I felt compelled to do all of the important ones--including obtaining all of the Espers and defeating all of the hunt marks, while blowing off things like fishing and rare monster hunting--despite it being my first playthrough, which took way too much time away from the main story. (Although it did bring each of my characters up to level 80, which I had not even been shooting for but happened naturally.)

However, I loved the almost Shakespearian feel to the method of story-telling, as well as all the action and FMV. (The ending was ace.)

I was, however, suprised to see that there is no romance subplot in this game whatsoever. In past Final Fantasy titles, it was almost always the main male character who ended up getting together with the mane female character. However, that didn't happen in this game. I had also thought that things were heating up between Vaan and Penelo, and Ashe and Balthier, but again I was wrong. (SPOILER)The very end of the game suggests that there is romantic tension between Balthier and Fran, and is further supported by the Amano art during the ending credits of Balthier and Fran posing together in a backwards hug-type thing (where it looks as if he is fondling her breast while picking his nose), and then another artwork of someone who looks a lot like Balthier holding a baby, suggesting that the two of them eventually had a child together. Still, these are vague and I'm not sure if they count or not.

The game ranks fourth in my list of Final Fantasy games that I've completed, and I give it a six out of ten.

[Renmiri]

probably my 5th favorite Final Fantasy game, behind 6,7,8, and 10.

Ditto, and I haven't even played 6,7,8 and 9 yet.

FFXII has a great world, a very enjoyable gameplay, killer graphics and a cool battle system but I need good music (Uematsu), good strong stories and characters I can care about.

[Pal0012]

I like some of the tracks on FFXII, but thats it, the last FF with great music was X, which seemed to set a perfect mood for whatever environment you were in. I did like the track that played when you were at the small campsites in the desert, and in the background during the cut scene when the group speaks of their plans about Bahamut, but that was the only real memorable one for me. The music was decent, but not on par with the VI, VII, IX, or X.

[Crossblades]

I haven't beaten XII yet, but so far it ranks as number 5 in my top 5 favorite FFs

1. Final Fantasy VI
2. Final Fantasy IV
3. Final Fantasy IX
4. Final Fantasy I/Final Fantasy III
5. Final Fantasy XII

[Dreddz]

Im not sure, FFXII is definately a great game, but I find it hard to put it ahead of some particular FF's. FFXII had a great battle system, probably the best one yet, a story which I liked ( not sure about others ) and alot of other sidequest and other optional stuff to do. But on the other hand, its soundtrack wasnt that good, the characters felt underdeveloped, the story was good but it went too slow for my liking, leaving out blue magic and the uninspiring artwork.

Its probably 4th or 5th on the list, but that still doesnt mean I dont consider it the best RPG on the PS2.

[Avarice-ness]

I played FFXII for 12 hours, got stuck, stopped playing for 2 months. Restarted the game like 2 or 3 weeks ago, got bored, don't really plan on returning to it. I'll prolly end up selling it for extra money, I'm not feeling this game -at all-.

My rankings are~

1. FFVI
2. FFIV
3. FFII
4. FFV
5. FFI
6. FFIX
7. FFVII
8. FFX
9. FFVIII
10. FFX-2
11. FFXII
12. FFXI

Only reason FFXII got 11th place was because it held my attention a liiiiiitle bit longer than FFXI did, and I got all the way through FFX-2.

[Ouch!]

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I've finally placed Final Fantasy XII at number II, behind IX.

1. FFIX
2. FFXII
3. FFIV

I don't really bother to rank the rest, except the two that I absolutely loathe, but this thread isn't about those games, so there's no need to mention them.

[Moon Rabbits]

1. Final Fantasy III
2. Final Fantasy IV
3. Final Fantasy VIII
4. Final Fantasy IX
   
5. Final Fantasy XII
6. Final Fantasy VII
7. Final Fantasy VI
8. Final Fantasy X
9. Final Fantasy V

Midway in the list. Final Fantasy III's story still is my favorite. I've yet to complete II and I so far, though.

[Pal0012]

I think VII is the most important game in the series and is the game that was most important in terms of popularizing the FF series, so it leads the way for me, here is my rankings for the ones I played all the way through.
1. VII
2. VIII
3. X
4. VI
5. XII
6. IV
7. IX
(I played X-2, but since it's a game that probably did not have the time and effort put into it as the others did, I will not compare it to the others, as that would be kind of unfair to it)

[BustaMo]

FFX
FFIX
FFVII/FFV/FFXII (3 way tie)
FFVI
FFVIII
FFI
FFX-2

[TheBanzaiKitten]

Here's based off of what I played...

FFVII
FFIX
FFXII
FFVIII
FFI
FFX (didn't play much of it)
FFII